{"id":18910,"date":"2016-07-14T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/most-americans-already-feel-election-coverage-fatigue\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:44:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:44:07","slug":"most-americans-already-feel-election-coverage-fatigue","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2016\/07\/14\/most-americans-already-feel-election-coverage-fatigue\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Americans already feel election coverage fatigue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The November election is still about four months away, yet most Americans are already worn out by the amount of news coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n

\"Nearly<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

A new Pew Research Center survey conducted June 7-July 5 finds that about six-in-ten Americans (59%) feel exhausted by the amount of election coverage, while 39% say they like getting a lot of coverage about the election. This feeling of fatigue is particularly true among those who aren\u2019t following news about the election very closely \u2013 69% of this group say they are worn out compared with about 41% of those who follow the election very closely.<\/p>\n\n

That said, just because Americans are worn out by the amount of coverage does not imply that interest in or attention to the election itself is low. In fact, a recent Pew Research Center report<\/a> showed that there was greater interest than during previous campaigns. Further, in February, we found that 91% of Americans had learned about the election<\/a> from at least one type of source in the previous week.<\/p>\n\n

With so many saying they are worn out by the coverage, what is it that Americans think has been getting too much attention?<\/p>\n\n

\"Most<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

When asked about various topics of campaign coverage, two areas stand out for being over-covered: About four-in-ten say there is too much coverage of candidates\u2019 comments on the campaign trail (44%) and of their personal lives (43%), higher than any other topics asked about. This is followed by coverage of which candidate is leading in the polls (37%) and the candidates\u2019 moral character (30%). Very few say the candidates\u2019 experience (15%) or their stances on issues (13%) have received too much attention.<\/p>\n\n

There is only one topic that most Americans say has received too little coverage<\/span> \u2013 candidates\u2019 stances on issues (55% feel this is under-covered). A separate Pew Research Center study<\/a> from June found that 65% of registered voters said the campaign was not focused on important policy debates, a view held by majorities in both parties.<\/p>\n\n

Generally, those who say they are worn out are more likely to say there is too much coverage of every<\/em> topic compared with those who like seeing a lot of coverage of the election.<\/p>\n\n

\"Democrats<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

On one topic a notable party difference emerges in whether there is too much or too little coverage: experience<\/span>. Roughly half (53%) of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say that there has been too little coverage of the candidates\u2019 experience, compared with only about a third (36%) of Republicans and Republican leaners. No other topic differed by more than 6% in whether each is covered too much or too little.<\/p>\n\n

The demographic groups most likely to express exhaustion over the amount of campaign coverage are younger adults, women, whites and independents. Perhaps most notably, about two-thirds of 18- to 29-year-olds (67%) say they are worn out, higher than all other age groups (60% of those ages 30-49, 56% of those 50-64, and 54% of those 65+). Whites are more likely than nonwhites\u00a0to say they are worn out by the amount of coverage<\/span> (62% vs. 54%), while women (62%) are somewhat more likely than men (56%). Independents (65%) are more likely than both Republicans and Democrats to say this (54% and 55%, respectively).<\/p>\n\n

Note: Read the full methodology and topline results here (PDF)<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

59% of Americans feel exhausted by the amount of election coverage, while 39% say they like getting a lot of coverage about the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[42,52,339,326],"bylines":[981],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-18910","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-election-2016","category-election-news-2","category-election-news-1","category-news-media-trends","bylines-jeffrey-gottfried","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-journalism"],"label":"Short 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